Customer Reviews

The Banker's Secret

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The authors tell you - in plain english - how to save thousands on your mortgage by either "prepaying" or paying your mortgage biweekly (or a combination of both). Although most banks will allow you to prepay (ie. pay extra towards the principal each month), very few if any allow you to pay biweekly. One exception I know of is Primerica Financial Services (a division of Citigroup/Travelers Insurance). Anyway, as an example, simply paying biweekly on a 30 year, $100,000 loan at 7.5% fixed rate would save you over $40,000 and shorten the loan life by over 6 years. The book contains hundreds of easy to use tables that show you what you'll save on loans ranging from $50-$500,000 and interest rates from 7% - 14.75% using either the prepayment or biweekly stratagies. The authors also explain the effect these stratagies will have on taxes and home equity as well as warn you about possible penalties and extra fees you can avoid.

You really don't need this book to do this on your own. Just print out a mortgage amortization table. If you don't know how to do this, contact your mortgage company and ask them to send it to you. Next, look at your most recent mortgage statement and find your current/remaining balance. Find this number in the amortization table. If you can't find it exactly, find the number that is just greater than it. Now you know where you are in your loan and you can see how many more payments you have. By paying extra principal, you move down the table. The more you pay, the faster you move. That's the secret.

If you want to save money on your mortgage and actually know how much money you will save, this is the book for you. There are - I don't know how many - charts that show mortgage amount, interest rate, and interest paid. Use these charts to decide how much you can save over the life of your mortgage. Very worthwhile book.

The authors show you - in plain english -how you can save thousands on your mortgage by either "prepaying" or by paying your mortgage biweekly (or a combination of both stratagies). Although most banks will allow you to prepay (ie. pay extra towards your principal) each month, very few if any allow you to pay biweekly. One exception I know of is Primerica Financial Services, which is a division of Citigroup/Travelers Insurance. Anyway, as an example, simply paying biweekly on a 30 year, $100,000 loan at 7.5% fixed rate would save you over $40,000 in interest and shorten the loan life by more than 6 years. The book contains over a hundred pages of easy to use tables that show you what you'll save on loans ranging from $50-$500,000, using fixed or adjustable interest rates from 7.0% to 14.75% and using either the prepayment or biweekly payment stratagies. The authors also explain how these stratagies affect your home equity and taxes and how to avoid extra fees or penalties.

This is a wonderful simple book which explains how to save tens of thousands of dollars by sending regular prepayments of as little as $25 monthly. The term of the mortgage is similarly shortened by many years, which explains the enormous interest savings. Get a copy for everyone you know with a mortgage! The software is also well worth getting

Great, speedy delevery & service, the book was exactly as I suspected talking about Amort schedules & what not. Thank you!

The book is good but I was a little disappointed. I wanted to find more info. about figuring out the savings if paying more than bi-weekly. There was only about 2 chapters of info. and then all charts. I read the book in less than an hour.

Disappointed, this book does discuss paying your mortgage off early and gives you the technique to accomplish that, but a whole book for this one technique? I wouldn't purchase it again, skim it at the bookstore. Discuss the method the book gives with your mortgage holder - some won't apply your money in the way the book notes. They don't have to, if you signed a paper at closing in which the bank stated a different method of applying your extra money. Remember that stack of papers you signed, look through them and see if there is one that shows how the bank will apply extra payments, even ones marked principle only.

I'm an avid audio tape listener and purchased the audio version of this book. It came in a generic case (like you'd buy to copy your own cassettes) with shabby wrapping and a couple of black and white stickers on it. It was so bad, I sent it back to Amazon. It may be worth $1.29, but not $12.95!!!

I received the book in good condition, but it was completely different from the original book I purchased in the 80's. I thought it would be the same book but it was not. I guess they changed it for the better but I wasn't pleased with what I saw. I like the book I purchased originally. Having said that, however, I think this is a great book to learn how to save thousands on your mortgage and pay it off sooner. If more homeowners take the time to learn these strategies, there would have been no crisis.